Chapter Four: Let It Go

It is the night before Christmas and all through the Rockies, not a creature is stirring except a young man shouting obscenities at his younger sister, whom is jumping over six feet of snow in green tights and a red blazer to catch up with him.

"You're going to freeze to death, ZuZu!"

"You'd love that! More inheritance for you!"

"No, I actually wouldn't love it if you froze to death!"

"That is literally the nicest thing you have ever said to me!"

"I know! And it always will be! Zuko, come back here because if you die I'm going to be forced to murder you! At least slow down, dammit!"

Zuko pauses a moment to consider if he should or not, and that is enough time for her to vault herself over the last snow stack and land directly behind him. He almost throws his arm up and grabs her in a choke hold, but he is not sure if he could win that fight.

She won most of the trophies in their martial arts. He was good. He was really good, but father stopped buying him lessons after he lost two competitions in a row. It was, needless to say, an overreaction on Ozai's part.

"Go back to the house. You know very well you'll die out here," Azula says, trying not to look as freezing cold as she is.

Zuko groans. "Why has it always been this? Why has our family decided to have a fucking Civil War because Mother and Uncle couldn't…" keep their hands off of each other.

"Oh, the war started before then. Father and Uncle fought with an admirable sibling rivalry in their youth, and I bet it goes all the way back to Sozin and his first enterprise," Azula says, slowly shaking her head. "It's fun. It's kind of like a soap opera."

"I don't want to live in a soap opera."

"You already do." Azula glances around and sees how damned lost they are. Her teeth chatter like typewriters. "But you'll die in The Thing if we don't find our way out of here."

Zuko doesn't argue, but he doesn't agree either.

.

Meanwhile, Bunny is finally ready for bed after a day of being forcibly occupied. Her little heart thumps with excitement for what she knows will be waiting for her. And, of all people, she clings tightly to Mai.

"Mai, Mai, Mai, Mai. Tell me The Night Before Christmas," Bunny pleads, widening her eyes.

"Your mom looks just like that when she's begging too," Mai remarks. She then realizes she is going to relent. It is way better than watching whatever fight has begun in the basement. It sounds like Ozai confronting Azulon at the moment, which will not do them any favors in the will.

Bunny guides Mai to her cozy guest room and jumps into the stuffed animal covered bed. Mai hears footsteps and recognizes the hushed voices in the hallway as Katara and Ursa.

"Why don't you ask one of them for The Night Before Christmas. I don't know it," Mai says and Bunny shakes her head feverishly.

"I like you," Bunny says, tugging at Mai's hair.

"I don't know any Christmas stories. Really."

"You gotta know one!" Bunny demands fiercely.

Mai takes a deep, slow breath. Ursa and Katara are watching, their interest of course piqued.

"I know one from another country. You've probably never heard it," Mai lies and Bunny shrugs.

"A bedtime story is a bedtime story." She grins just like Ty Lee does.

There is a long silence before Mai manages to collect herself and select the only Christmas story she honestly knows.

"Once upon a time," Mai begins, glancing over her shoulder for help from Ursa and Katara and receiving exactly none, "on a Christmas long, long ago—"

"When?" Bunny demands.

"1988," to which Ursa made an uncomfortable sound in the back of her throat. "Once upon a time, on the Christmas of 1988, there was a man named John McLane and he was a cop for the NYPD. You know about them, Bunny," Mai says and the New York native nods.

Katara sucks in air to keep from laughing.

And Mai continues, "He was visiting his separated wife at her fancy… either of you know what that company did?"

"Nupe," Katara replies, choking slightly.

Mai frantically looks around the room and her eyes rest on a plush animal first. "At the unicorn stuffed animal enterprises factory headquarters. They were having a Christmas party and there was this one guy doing coke-Coca-Cola. Drinking. Drinking Coca-Cola. And that's all I remember about the beginning."

"Bruce Willis took his shoes off at some point," Katara adds, finally.

Mai continues, "Right, right. So, then this awful guy Hans Gruber came along to… steal Christmas. I guess? Does that make it better? Hell if I know. Hans Gruber wanted to steal Christmas and so he send guys with assault rifles around and kept a ton of hostages. John McLane witnessed a murder of the owner of whatever I said that company did. Hans Gruber wanted the code to… steal Christmas. So he shot the guy in the face."

"Mai!" snaps Katara.

"No, no, I like it!" Bunny squeals.

"Right. He shot the guy in the face. So, John McClane tried to call the police but they didn't help him because Hans Gruber tricked the guy. Then John McClane got the guy's attention by dropping a dead body of one of the guys' asses he kicked onto his car."

"He used a dead body?"

"At some point he also sent a dead body down an elevator and put Santa Clause stuff on him and write now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho on the corpse in blood."

"Awesome!"

"See, kids love violence. The Coca-Cola dude tries to pretend he knows John McLane but, of course he doesn't, because John McLane prefers Pepsi. He also gets shot in the face by Hans Gruber. So, Hans Gruber then pretends to be one of the hostages and tries to trick John McLane. But he doesn't. John McLane gives him a gun with no bullets in it and you had to be there. It's funny, I swear. Then I fell asleep for a while so I don't remember. But in the end the FBI comes, the roof blows up but John McLane saves everyone, and Hans Gruber falls out of a window and dies." Mai stops. That's the end of the story.

Bunny looks expectant.

Mai adds, "And he lived happily ever after with his wife, okay?"

"Okay." Bunny shrugs. "So… what country is that story from again?"

"… The Netherlands."

"'kay." Bunny lies down, satisfied by the Christmas story. "Thanks, Mai."

"No problem." Mai awkward pats her on the head and walks out of the room, directly into chaos she didn't even notice.

She does not even have time to ask what happened before Ilah says breathlessly, "Zuko and Azula both ran out into the snow. They're going to freeze to death."

"It's the middle of night in the Rockies. What are they even thinking?" Mai tries to sound mocking and detached, but her voice cracks and her heart pounds. She thinks maybe they can hear it beating out of her chest.

"They're thinking that the fight down there got very bad the minute Zuko punched through the wall," Ilah says softly. "Will you and Katara and Ty Lee go look around for them? They can't have gotten far."

Mai takes that to mean that Azulon, Iroh and Ozai are still in the midst of the unfortunate battle. Then Mai looks up to see that Ty Lee is crying hysterically. Mai awkwardly pats her back.

"Azula's not going to freeze to death. Keep calm." Mai attempts and fails to reassure her. Ty Lee only cries louder.

"She is! You know that she is!" Ty Lee screams, throwing her arms around Mai and pulling her into a tight embrace. "Please, please help us."

"I'm going to help you," Mai says, pushing Ty Lee off of her. It feels like removing gum from her hair, but she succeeds in the end. "Let's get dressed. They don't have much time."

"Mai," Katara snaps as Ty Lee bursts into tears yet another time.

"You don't look so worried about Zuko," Mai snaps and that renders Katara speechless.

Katara pulls on her parka, shoots Mai a venomous glance, and walks out of the house into the six feet of snow. Mai gets dressed and walks outside, letting Ty Lee cling to her the whole way. Katara is already working on starting up one of the two snowmobiles.

"I'm going to have to ride with Ty Lee, aren't I?"

"Mai drives scary! Take me please!" Ty Lee screams at Katara, remember the days of Death Proof together.

Mai used to drive down the coast going nearly a hundred miles per hour. She was a girl who barely spoke, a girl who people thought was either dangerous or pretending to be dangerous, one who was sarcastic and wanted to lie back and drift on the currents of life. But when you got her on a swing as a little girl she wanted to fly; when you got her behind the wheel of a sports-car she would drive like a crazy person.

Her boyfriend when they were sixteen had a motorcycle and that was the only reason she dated him.

All of that comes back to Ty Lee and at first warms her with nostalgia, before she remembers Azula's role in all of those events and her heart aches. Please don't let Azula be dead or freezing.

.

"ZuZu, slow down," Azula says hoarsely. "I don't feel cold anymore."

"Well, lucky you. Always lucky. Father always said you were born lucky and I was lucky to be born. No wonder he didn't want me in the divorce."

"Firstly, mother didn't want me! Secondly, shut the fuck up about your unresolved childhood issues. I swear I'll take you to therapy when we get out of those. But I don't feel cold anymore. That's… really not a good sign when I'm drenched with snow and we're in the middle of the goddamned mountains."

Zuko hesitates and licks his lips. He can remember a movie on Netflix. He can remember when he was younger and his mother told her about how two of her friends died on Mt. Hood. And when he looks at Azula, he reaches towards her and pulls her into one arm.

"Do you have your lighter?" Zuko breathes as she reluctantly accepts the slight increase in her body temperature.

Azula's eyes flash and she rips herself away from her brother. "I told Ty Lee! I told her that smoking would save my life if I ever was in a survival situation!"

"I do not think smoking saves lives but do you have it?"

"Yeah," Azula says, rummaging in the pocket of her blazer. She withdraws the white lighter with the intense blue dragon adorning it and attempts to flick it on. Azula succeeds only in breaking her thumbnail. "I'm too cold. Do it for me."

Zuko swallows and tries to remember how to do this. He manages, thankfully, and then closes it.

"We need something to burn," he says and then he looks down at the boots that Uncle bought him from West. He bitched and complained about them, but they happen to be of a decent quality. He pulls off his socks. "These are not the best combustible material I can think of."

"Just dig a fire for us. I'd do it if I could move my hands," Azula hisses and Zuko groans.

"You are so lucky I watch survival shows for fun."

"Isn't your girlfriend an Eskimo?"

"Oh, yeah, on our first date she took me up to Alaska and taught me how to build fires, hunt seals and live harmoniously with nature," Zuko grumbles.

"Then listen to my orders," Azula says and Zuko glares at her.

"Just once. Just once," he growls before listening to the steps of building a fire. "You really are the Queen of the Girl Scouts."

"If you call me that one more time I would not be surprised if your house burned down with you in it," Azula hisses, grabbing the lighter and kneeling by her perfect fire that Zuko managed to execute.

"It was such a funny nickname. Mai used to call you that all the time." Zuko laughs and tries to warm up with weak fire. It's better than nothing, at least. "You were so prissy."

"I had to be prissy. I've wanted nothing more than to be the successful empress of a conglomerate for my entire life. With a hot wife and my face in magazines and to want for nothing."

"You wanted for nothing as a kid. Father took better care of you than me."

"I wanted to be able to do it for myself. To control everything and to achieve more than he ever did. I want Sozin and father and grandfather to be known as the people who beget me because I did more than all of them. And, believe me ZuZu, I've been getting closer and closer to that since I was six years old." Azula smirks and relights the fire. The socks are not burning for long.

Zuko is going to die glaring at her for flaunting how much better than him she turned out.

It seems fitting.

.

Ty Lee clings to her old best friend as they take snowmobiles through the mountains.

Mai drives like a lunatic, but Ty Lee appreciates the icy wind stinging her cheeks because it means she is getting closer to Azula. She can't lose her. She can't. Katara is close behind and Ty Lee tries not to be impressed by her, as it would be disloyal to her beloved.

"I'm gonna marry her!" Ty Lee shouts and Mai doesn't slow down.

"I know! Ozai told me!" Mai says breaking a stack of snow and showering them in chunks of it. Ty Lee screams but even that doesn't slow Mai down. "I figured she'd announce it!"

"Who else knows?" Ty Lee demands and Mai shrugs.

"I don't know! Just—Zuko!" Mai comes to a stop right before crashing into the two warring siblings.

Ty Lee jumps from the snowmobile and tackles Azula to the ground. She kisses her again and again on the lips, making everyone extremely uncomfortable. Katara gently kisses Zuko and takes off her mittens so that he can squeeze into them.

Mai sits there, breathing a sigh of relief while no one is listening.

"That was a surprisingly successful rescue mission," she remarks.

No one pays it any mind.

.

When they get back to the house, Azula stumbles inside and Ty Lee drags her up the stairs towards her bed.

Ty Lee lays her girlfriend down onto their bed and fetches those fur blankets.

"I love you. Please don't die," Ty Lee whispers as she makes Azula as comfortable as possible.

"God, I'm not going to die. You can't kill me that easily," Azula whispers, trying to keep her eyes open.

"Will you tell them tomorrow?" Ty Lee asks softly and Azula pretends not to know what she is talking about. "Mai and Ozai already know. Tell them we're getting married. Are you just gonna surprise them with the invitations?"

Azula sighs. "No," but she is lying. Azula brought two engagement rings with rocks that could knock out a grizzly bear.

But Ty Lee has no reason to suspect, because Azula has tried to hide their engagement at all costs. They didn't even wear rings. Azula didn't even get her a ring for that matter, but Ty Lee has been expecting one.

"You look so pretty as an Ice Princess."

Azula smirks and thinks about that pillow fort. She liked it more than she will ever admit.

"I preferred Fire Princess. Seeing as my lighter saved my life and you are wrong. You are always wrong and you should adjust to that."

Ty Lee laughs. "You're mean."

"Yes, yes I am." Azula sits up and kisses Ty Lee on the lips.

And Ty Lee sinks into her.

Epilogue: Dawn

Azula wakes up to Bunny jumping on the bed like an excited puppy.

"It's Christmas! It's Christmas! It's Christmas! Wake up! Wake up!" she screams, bouncing onto Azula's ribs by accident. The CEO yelps from the pain and sits straight up. "IT'S CHRISTMAS!"

Ty Lee smiles and sits up. "Welcome to parenthood, princess," Ty Lee says, smiling. "It's my nickname for you. I figure it's better than sweet sugar cakes."

Azula rolls her eyes. "I am never living that pretend game down, am I?"

"COME ON IT'S CHRISTMAS I WANT MY IPAD!" Bunny shouts and Azula tilts her head to the side.

Bunny already reminds her of herself. That is frightening.

They walk down the stairs, Bunny's exclamations waking everyone up.

The family sits around that evergreen tree with cowboy coffee and pajamas and for some reason manage to get through the agony.

Azula reacts coldly to gifts from her mother, as expected. Bunny gets enough presents for ten children and Ty Lee kisses Azula three times about that. Katara gives a lecture about major high end designers and their treatment of third world countries, but Ty Lee totally doesn't care because Prada.

Zuko takes glances at Mai's low cut nightdress. Azulon takes his coffee with Bailey's and taunts his family with his alleged dreams of a perfect holiday.

And Azula, Azula runs up the stairs to get two last gifts.

One says, To Azula, From Azula and the other says To Ty Lee, from Azula.

"Did you honestly address a gift to yourself?" Katara asks loudly and Azula nods.

"Yes, now everyone please pay attention," Azula says. "Open them at the same time."

Ty Lee smiles and nods. They open them with all eyes fixated on the couple. A couple that has been hot and cold for twenty years, but after Azula almost died of cold, she wants them to be hot forever.

And Ty Lee cannot believe it when she sees that they are engagement rings.

"Thank you, thank you!" Ty Lee squeals, hugging Azula tightly as Azulon starts a very awkward applause.

He quite enjoys this scene and how it tears the family in two. Oh, they will have a hard time not ripping each other to shreds tonight for fear of losing their inheritance.

Azula stands up but gestures for Ty Lee to stay down.

"Ty Lee, ask me to marry you. Now."

The End

but to be continued in the sequel/prequel, Spring Fever

A/N: Thank you so much for reading and thank you for your patience about this final chapter being a day late. I've really loved the reviews I've gotten and the kindness of every reader. I asked about a potential sequel or prequel last chapter and I got a pretty high number of people saying they would really like one, and this just didn't feel completed to me. I have more stories to tell about the Shinohai Family.

The sequel will also be a prequel. The sequel is about Azula and Ty Lee's wedding, and the prequel will be intertwined to tell a relevant story that reveals more about the past and fleshes out many references in this fic. If you're interested, I'll be posting it before the end of the weekend.

Thank you again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the show. :D